Reply To: Generate random code

• jarvis

• November 22, 2021 at 4:27 am

I’ve done similar using the below code:

<?php
add_action( 'transition_post_status', 'generate_random_url', 10, 3 );

function generate_random_url( $new_status, $old_status, $post ) {

    #only apply this to a particular post type 	
	if ( 'publish' !== $new_status or 'publish' === $old_status || 'cpt' !== get_post_type( $post ) )
	return;
	
	if ( defined( 'DOING_AUTOSAVE' ) && DOING_AUTOSAVE )
	return;	
        
        ####generate the random slug
        
        #get current date/time
        $date = date('YmdH:i:s');
        
        #randmoise
        $randomise = ($date * 25);
        
        #hash the randomised value, just adds another level but doesn't need to be 100% secure
        $new_slug = md5($randomise);
                
        #get the post data
        $my_post = array(
            'ID'        => $post->ID,
            'post_name'    => $new_slug
        ); 
    
        #update the post into the database
        wp_update_post( $my_post );
		
		#update the download ID field
		update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'download_id', $new_slug );

}

Basically, once the custom post type was saved, it would generate a random value based on a date time stamp.
I used this to create a random page URL but you can see it also updated a custom field called download ID

I’m sure there are other ways to do this but should get you underway.